Provence Cruise- Which Cruise Line is Best?

We are considering trying a river cruise for a change next year and are comparing 8 and 15 day trips from Paris or Lyon to Arles or Barcelona on various cruise lines. As we are really not familiar with any of them and the itineraries seem identical, could anyone that has done any river cruising offer some guidance on the pros/cons of Viking, UniWorld, AMA Waterways and Avalon? Feel free to add others if I have left any other significant player out.

Regards,

We traveled from Nice to Paris a month ago on GCT Provence. It was a wonderful trip!! We did the pre-trip in Nice, then got the boat in Arles, sailed to Avignon, Viviers, Tournon, Lyon, and Macon. We bused to Beaune and on to Paris, where we had 2 1/2 days (we did not do the post-trip). I would highly recommend this trip. It was our first river trip, and I will do another one!

(I have posted another review on this website.)

AMAwaterways has an old ship on this trip. Try for one of the newer ships. Also, Amawaterways is new at this trip. I'd trust Uniworld who has more experience in this area.

We just returned from the South to North river (Arles to Chalon) cruise on Uniworld River Royale - beautiful ship, excellent staff and super excursions. You can't go wrong if you choose this line.

B. Cole

Thank you B. Cole- can you tell me anything about the cabins? Is there any real difference in categories?

Is there anyone who has sailed both Uniworld and Viking (or one of the others) who can offer any comparisons in terms of excursions, on-board lectures or other experiences?

Next year the ship will not be the one that is there now. It will be the Amadagio. I was on the sister ship this year and loved it. Its only about 4 years old I think

I have done this itinerary already with Uniworld and will be doing it next spring with Ama. The itinerary is great and definatly can be done more than once. The thing I like is that the LaBaux excursion is included with AMA and it wasn't even offered with Uniworld. I ended up to it on my own on a public bus. Its a not miss. Also the Beaujolais excursion is fantastic

I personally thought the food and the service was better on AMA. Whatever you do be sure there is a jacuzzi onboard as if you cruise the area during the summer it is HOT and you will need to dip in the water to cool off.

Definatly go for the French Balcony cabins.

I answered you on the other cruises board. Personally I would not put U and V in the same class. Have travelled more than once on both lines--never disappointed on U, but out of three V cruises only one was reaaly good. I told you the cheerleaders would come out. We all have our faorite lines. About the only ones we haven't used are GCT and Avalon. No one can really pick the line that filts you best. Many will try one line, if it is good they never try another. Some of us look at the itinerary and what is offered by the line, time of year and cost. Good luck. Pat

We just returned from the South to North river (Arles to Chalon) cruise on Uniworld River Royale - beautiful ship, excellent staff and super excursions. You can't go wrong if you choose this line.

B. Cole

(As mentioned by another post here, we're one of the ones who found Uniworld for our first river cruise, and haven't changed to another provider (for a total of five Uniworld cruises now over six years) because we really liked the Uniworld product).

We did the southbound Chalon to Arles in late April, (including the Uniworld 3-night pre-cruise in Paris), and had a wonderful time. If you're interested in the daily programs, I've put them on a link on our web site at http://www.hillrisefarm.us/Uniworld_2011.html

Uniworld also schedules their Paris itinerary on River Baroness to preface/follow the South France itinerary to make up a 15-day France itinerary, which includes the 4-hour coach connection between the two ships. (I posted those daily programs at http://www.hillrisefarm.us/Uniworld_2009.html

Cheers!

...Karl

Our very first river cruise was Chalon to Avignon with an extension to Nice with Viking. That got us hooked on river cruising. I have also been on Uniworld on the Rhine. IMHO, both lines are very similar. I have also been on AMA, Gate 1 and Grand Circle. No complaints on any of these companies.

Thank you Karl for posting the dailies. That is very helpful. It seems that there is one scheduled tour and one optional tour each day. The latter seems to be mostly in the afternoons. Does the morning tour get back in time to do the afternoon one? Can you do anything on your own? In ports where you do not sail until the next day, can you spend time in the town/village at night and return to the ship any time? We are used to getting up and out early in the morning and not returning to our ocean ship until dinnertime. Just trying to get the feel for river cruising and whether it would be a good option for us.